Louis Armstrong began singing for pennies on the streets of his native New Orleans at age seven, supplementing the money his mother earned after his parents separated. At 13, he was arrested and sent to a home for street waifs.
For some children in that situation, the future would have been bleak. But for Armstrong, life was just beginning. Along with the regular meals he got in the home, Armstrong got cornet lessons from the director and the warden, both of whom were amateur musicians.
His mastery of the cornet, and later the trumpet, helped Armstrong become a world-famous entertainer and a major influence on the history of jazz.
He achieved fame at an early age when he began playing with the jazz band of Joseph "King" Oliver in 1918. Oliver's "Creole Jazz Band" was the first black jazz ensemble to make recordings.
Armstrong's trumpet expertise inspired awe, and he made improvising solos not only a test of skill and invention but also an opportunity for musical imagination and emotional expression.
He formed his own band, "Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five," in 1924 and in the same year married pianist Lillian Hardin. He went on to a glorious and world-wide career in popular entertainment, introducing his famous "scat" singing style in the 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies." In scat singing, the voice is used like an instrument and nonsense syllables are substituted for notes.
Armstrong appeared as himself in dozens of movies, authored a book on jazz and made famous recordings of such classics as "Star Dust," "Mack the Knife," "West End Blues," and his signature song, "When It's Sleepy Time Down South."
A film biography of Armstrong, "Satchmo the Great," was released in 1957. Armstrong got the nickname "Satchmo" in the early 1930s, during his first of many European tours.
Londoners who thronged to his concerts at the Palladium dubbed him "Satchelmouth" because of his large mouth and the way his cheeks puffed out hugely when he blew his horn. The cheek-puffing was the result of improper musical technique passed on to him by his first amateur teachers.
His wife said that Armstrong's only unrealized dream was to sing the national anthem at Shea Stadium, home of his beloved New York Mets. Although he practiced for years, Armstrong never received a long-hoped-for invitation to open a Mets' game. He died of a heart attack in 1971.
